Smash and Grab/Chapter 2: For Fun and Profit

For Fun and Profit is the second chapter of Guristas epic arc. You will be doing missions for Cilis Leglise in 6NJ8-V VII - Moon 2 - Guristas Logistic Support. Near the end of this chapter in mission seven you will receive one Dread Guristas ECM Multispectral Jammer. In the last mission you will choose between two paths for the third chapter.

I was hoping you'd contact me. You've made quite the impression among the Guristas ranks, so I had to jump at the chance of working with the hot, new capsuleer.

We've been picking up increased Navy activity in the region. It's really gutsy of them to come this far into Venal. This is our turf, after all. Before we can draw them into an ambush or respond in any meaningful (and hopefully humiliating) way, we need to know more about their activities. Luckily, Kori's provided me with some rather juicy information on a communications station that the Navy has erected. I need you to take it out.

According to our intel, the State uses the Venal Regional Comms tower to feed their forces information about our movements within this region. I don't know: This is pretty dirty, even by Caldari standards. We can change this situation, though. If you hack the tower, it'll redirect the signal to follow the Navy's movements instead of ours.

Take this Data Analyzer and hack the tower. You'll have to hang around the tower for a bit once you've successfully hacked the signal. Something may turn up, possibly some more trouble. Roll with the punches on this one, and think on your feet. I assume you know what you're doing. After all, we capsuleers are invincible warriors, right?

This mission can be complete remotely. The mission requires Hacking skill and a data analyzer module (provided by agent).

Bliz: Hack the container, grab the item and warp out before any of the defenders even get close.

Room 1

You will land 12 km from the Venal Regional Comms Tower that you need to hack. Initial defenders are scattered 30-50 km from the hackable container so you will have time to hack it before any of them gets close to you. Remember to take the item from inside the hacked tower.

No ships need to be destroyed to complete the mission.

Initial defenders

WD

EWAR

L

10 x Frigate Caldari Navy Patrol FrigateP

1 x Elite Frigate Caldari Navy Special Operations Patrol

2 x Destroyer Caldari Navy Patrol Destroyer

Reinforcements arrive after succesful hacking.

Reinforcements

WD

EWAR

L

2 x Frigate Caldari Navy Patrol FrigateP

2 x Destroyer Caldari Navy Patrol Destroyer

You can remotely complete this mission and remotely accept the next while still in space.

Mission 6 - Fuel Gauge

Type

Encounter

Objective

Destroy Fuel Depots structures

Faction

Caldari State

Best damage to deal

Kin Th

Damage to resist

Kin Th

Warp disruption

Elite frigates

Ship size limit

Limited to T1 destroyers and T1/T2 frigates

Rewards

6,000,000 + time bonus

Mission briefing

Thanks to your work back at the comms tower, we've discovered the locations of a budding Navy fleet. This Navy group is much larger than ones we've seen in recent times. It looks like they're trying to weaken our hold on the fringe systems and consolidate power in Venal.

Not quite a bad plan on paper, to be completely honest. But they're becoming cocky, expecting to sneak up on us and take out our forces with ease. We'll do them one better, though, and surprise them. If we strike first, they won't be able to muster their forces enough to overwhelm us. And that's where you come in.

The fleet is docked at a fueling station, preparing for their attack. They're sitting ducks, or fish in a barrel, or whatever cliché you want to use. What makes this a great opportunity for us is their fueling depots. Those silos have enough energy stored in them to take out three fleets, if they happen to catch on fire. And that's what you'll be doing. Destroy at least one of the fuel depots, which will cascade and destroy the surrounding ships. Ignore the big ships and go straight for the fuel depots. There may be some guards there, but your main targets are the fuel depots. This is way more bang for your buck than you were expecting, huh?

This mission can be accepted Remotely. You should not stay and fight, complete the objective and warp away ASAP.

Bliz: Destroy ships at warpin and go to first room. Destroy each depot and run away.

Warpin

The guards are split to two groups. You can attack one of them without getting aggro from the other.

Initial defenders

WD

EWAR

L

7 x Frigate Fueling Depot Guard

1 x Destroyer Fueling Depot Guard

1 x Sentry Caldari Stasis Tower

Room 1

3 battleship groups with frigates and destroyers near them. Destroying any of the Fuel Depot structures (Alpha, Beta and Gamma) will make all battleship class guards near that structure explode. Frigate and destroyer classes are not harmed by the explosions.

Fly to each Fuel Depot and blow them up fast. Warp off after last one blows up. Move fast to avoid frigates that web and point.

Initial defenders

WD

EWAR

L

7 x Frigate Fueling Depot Guard

7 x Destroyer Fueling Depot Guard

18 x Battleship State Tenkyu/Utaisho/Yojimbo/Zewn

Each battleship will drop Caldari Navy Vice Admiral Insignia I which are worth few millions. You should not try to loot the wrecks while the frigates are around as they will point and web. Instead bookmark the site and return after turning in the mission

Mission 7 - Knockout Punch

Type

Encounter

Objective

Pick up the Guristas „Dirty‟ Explosive System and blow the Caldari State carrier with it

Ship size limit

Shuttle

Rewards

1x Dread Guristas ECM Multispectral Jammer + time bonus

Extra

You will lose your ship in this mission

Mission briefing

You have no idea how much you frightened the Navy with that last strike. They're completely demoralized and retreating to a rally point in a nearby deadspace pocket. Turns out, they had a carrier waiting in their midst to bring extra destruction to our members. Well, we'll take care of that.

The fleet is pinned down, but we're having trouble getting to them. They've locked themselves in the pocket, only allowing shuttles to get through their gates. We thought we'd have a large siege on our hands, but a rather brilliant idea came to me. I am, of course, a capsuleer like yourself; we think differently than the mortals we have to deal with.

Time for a suicide run. Doesn't that sound like fun? We'll give you a shuttle to take specifically for this mission. (We have quite a stockpile of useless Caldari shuttles, for some reason.) You can join our talented Guristas Capsuleer Fleet, which specializes in suicide missions. Meet with the fleet at the deadspace pocket, pick up some of our “dirty” explosives from a fellow fleet member, and fly at the carrier. You'll lose the shuttle, but you'll take out that carrier. I wish I could go on this mission, but I've got my own orders to follow.

You will lose this shuttle that we have provided you, but you won't get podded. However, you will be a very easy target for wayward pirates in the area. Not to worry, though: You can minimize the risk for this mission. Besides, I'll make sure that you're handsomely rewarded for this effort. Hell, the thrill of the kill should be enough, right?

This mission requires you to just fly through an deadspace complex in a shuttle. The acceleration gates in site will not allow any other ship types through. 1 Caldari Shuttle (500.0 m3) will be granted to you when accepting this mission.

You will lose your ship during this mission. Your pod is safe in mission but traveling in null in pod can be dangerous.

Warpin

The ships at entry point are not agressive unless fired at. You can proceed to first deadspace room right away.

Passivce entry guards

WD

EWAR

L

18 x Battleship Guristas Battleship

Room 1

Shortly after entering the stage, all guards will explode upon each other.

Pick up the Guristas „Dirty‟ Explosive System from the Damaged Caldari Shuttle. and proceed to the next pocket.

Ships

WD

EWAR

L

18 x Friendly Frigate Captured Caldari State Shuttle

7 x Frigate State Bo-Hi/Showato

2 x Cruiser State Bushi/Dogo

Room 2

Target

WD

EWAR

L

1 x Carrier Caldari State Carrier

When you get within close proximity to the carrier, both it and you will explode and the mission is marked as completed.

The carrier wreck will contain one rear-admiral dog tag. You can bookmark the wreck and come back to loot it.

Mission 8 - Culling the Weak

Type

Branch

Objective

Choose your path

Mission briefing

I've come across a problem in my operations. You may have noticed a lot of interloping on the part of other agents. Whether it's Kori trying to get you to show a modicum of mercy to the Navy or, as I strongly suspect, Irichi leaving those messages, I'm done with people trying to influence my business. I can't have all this politics messing with my operations, especially not where a valuable asset like you is concerned.

I want you to choose one of these offenders and follow their activity. They're both so eager to take you off my hands. I suspect one, or both, of them are actively betraying the Guristas in some fashion. Call me paranoid, but I just don't trust them. Thus, you will be my mole and try to determine who is undermining my operations. This previous operation went well, but I suspect some tampering from them. Operations like this don't normally go this well without a major disaster occurring directly afterwards. Let's try to avoid a fiasco, OK?

Once I have this information, I'll be able to send them the appropriate message. No, I'm not going to do anything extreme. I'm not going to do anything as stupid as encourage open infighting while the Navy is so active. Consider this a setting of boundaries; but yes, I'm essentially asking you to help me screw up another agent's operation. We'll see how they like it.

Threat Assessment >>
Alright. Irichi. There is a small chance you may have worked with him before. He was a Lai Dai ordinance engineer who failed one of his annual psychological evaluations. From there, he stowed away aboard a capsuleer's ship heading into lowsec space. His mistake. The capsuleer's crew found him, and he became the capsuleer's toy for two years before he escaped, absolutely insane and missing half of his body parts. We've been taking care of him ever since, and when he's lucid, Irichi is actually quite brilliant. He has made some small recoveries, but we're not out to make him normal. If we did, he might not want to be a pirate any longer. See the problem in that?

The notes you found make a lot more sense under that context, don't they? The fact that he's sending you missives on his “transformation,” or whatever the hell he's calling it, means you're either his favorite culprit at the moment, as is any capsuleer that he comes across, or he suspects someone you're working with. That worries me.

Any time he becomes particularly active in this sort of way, somebody gets killed. Don't believe anything he says about me unless you think it's gonna somehow give you an advantage, okay? He's dangerous, and even if he sees you as some kind of instrument, it's not beyond him to kill your for amusement. Be careful.

Smoke and Mirrors >>
Kori is one of the reasons I came over to the Guristas. But he's become soft, and he meddles. I've been monitoring his transmissions to you in the field, and I'm sure he's working with the Navy.

He won't be willing to work with you directly right now. I've arranged for you to meet with one of his operatives, Eroma Eralen. You'll meet him in a deadspace pocket at these coordinates. Be careful, though: Eroma is renowned for his technological ability. He's not good at anything else, but he sure does know his way around illegal pirate tech, especially wavelength and frequency modulation. Meet with him and see what he knows. He owes me a favor, anyway.

In this mission you chose between two paths: You either help Irichi Path and take mission 9a, 10a, 11a and 12a or help Kori Path and take missions 9b, 10b and 11b. The final rewards are the same.